Dedication of Fisk University (1876)

Nashville, January 1 — The new Fisk university, named in honor of General Clinton B. FISK, was formally dedicated today in presence of a large assemblage of people, white and black. Governor PORTER and other State officials, Bishop McTYEIRE, of the Methodist church south, and quite a number of clergymen and educators were present. General FISK, who is president of the board of directors, presided and made the opening address, which embodied an earnest and eloquent plea for cordial relations between the races, for the education and cultivation of the colored people, and for the cultivation of a liberal and patriotic feeling everywhere. Abounding as it did in the most generous sentiments toward the southern people, and urging that the dead past bury its dead, it elicited warm recommendations. Governor PORTER, Bishop MCTYEIRE, Ex-Commissioner SMITH, president of Howard university, and others, also made addresses. The occasion was a notable one, marking an important era in the advancing intelligence and progress of the negro race in the south. The university building cost one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, nearly all of which was raised by the Jubilee singers. Mrs. FISK, by personal effort in New York, raised sufficient funds to furnish the forty rooms of the building. The institution partakes somewhat of the nature of a normal college, as since its establishment, ten years ago, it has annually graduated about one hundred teachers and candidates for the ministry, all colored. The university was established by, and is conducted under the control of, the American missionary association, but various denominations are represented in the board of directors and crops of teachers and professors. The building is on a commanding eminence, about one mile west of the city, and with its superior architectural design and finish, and large and imposing dimensions, presents as fine a view as any college building in America.